When the apartment building repairperson was un-blocking my kitchen sink drain, he asked, "When did your garbage disposal stop working?" And I confidently answered "Wha– It works fine." I knew it worked; whenever I flipped its switch, I could hear the roar of a mighty engine below, never stuck, never straining. The repairperson made a skeptical face and looked more closely. "This disposal doesn't have any blades." Over the years the blades had worn off or broken off or something. I'd been impressed that my disposal was so powerful that it never got stuck… but that's just because it just spinning in place, with no "arms" actually pushing on anything.
This made me want to use "Like a bladeless garbage disposal" as a simile for something that's working hard, making lots of noise, and accomplishing nothing useful. (This is a common situation and it would be nice to have a fresh simile.) "Garbage disposal" isn't so easy on the tongue but I think I could get into saying "Like a bladeless blender."
Like a bladeless blender.
Anyhow, now my apartment has a new garbage disposal and the kitchen sink drains OK so if you just ignore the world at large, things are looking up.
